The miracle of the Widow’s oil, 2 Kings 4:1-7

Elisha met a widow of a prophet. She had debts and the creditor was coming to take her sons as slaves.

God had an interesting way of the prophet Elisha to meet the woman and her sons’ needs.

Elisha had her get many jars and fill them with oil from her one small jar.

For the rest of the story read Background Reading below.

Background Reading:

The Widow’s Miracle of the Oil Vessels

4:1 Now there happened to be a certain woman who had been the wife of a member of the Guild of Prophets. She cried out to Elisha, “My husband who served you has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. But a creditor has come to take away my children into indentured servitude!”

2 Elisha responded, “What shall I do for you? Tell me what you have in your house.”

She replied, “Your servant has nothing in the entire house except for a flask of oil.”

3 He told her, “Go out to all of your neighbors in the surrounding streets and borrow lots of pots from them. Don’t get just a few empty vessels, either. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind you, taking only your children, and pour oil into all of the pots. As each one is filled, set it aside.”

5 So she left Elisha, shut the door behind her and her children, and while they kept on bringing vessels to her, she kept on pouring oil. 6 When the last of the vessels had been filled, she told her son, “Bring me another pot!”

But he replied, “There isn’t even one pot left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 After this, she went and told the man of God what had happened. So he said, “Go sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your children will be able to live on the proceeds.”2 Kings 4:1-7